Protective hood for exteriorly mounted meters and tanks



March 13, 1956 PROTECTIVE HOOD FOR EXTERIORLY MOUNTED METERS AND TANKS Filed March 25 1953 INVENTOR. $255.97. 626083.

United States Patent PROTECTIVE HOOD FOR EXTERIORLY MOUNTED METERS AND TANKS Herbert C. Goss, Glenshaw, Pa. Application March 25, 1953, Serial No. 344,561

1 Claim. (CI. 45-63) My invention relates to protective hoods, and more particularly to those for use out of doors to shield or protect installations such as meters and gas tanks that are mounted outside of buildings, although it is capable of use also in other locations and for other purposes.

Hoods or boxes of this type usually are made of several pieces connected together by hinges, various of the pieces being joined in unitary relation by welding or riveting.

My invention has for one of its objects the provision of a hood that can conveniently be made of two sheets of sheet metal for assembly in unitary relation, against accidental opening or relative displacement, without the necessity of welding, riveting or the use of separatelyformed connecting parts.

Another object of my invention is to provide a protective hood of the type referred to, wherein the two parts forming the hood can readily be disassembled and nested for storage or shipment.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is an end elevational view of the hood;

Fig. 2 is a rear elevational view of the hood;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the forward portion of the hood of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view at one of the rear corners of the hood.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary plan view showing the manner in which one of the metal plates is bent to form the back and end walls of the hood, and

Fig. 6 is an end view, on a reduced scale, of a modified form of the structures of Figs. 1 to 4.

The box or hood is shown as made of two pieces of material such as sheet metal. One of these pieces is bent on vertical lines at the rear corner of the structure, to form a rear wall 5 and end walls 6, the end walls sloping forwardly at their upper edges. The back wall is provided with a suitable number of openings to receive pipe fittings or the like for connection to tanks or meters within the hood. Also, the rear wall .is stamped or pressed to form perforated bosses 8.for the reception of screws or bolts by which the hood can be connected to a wall or other support.

The other metal plate is bent on a horizontal line to form a top wall 9 and a front wall 10. These two walls are of somewhat greater length than the back wall 5, so that they will overlie the upper and front edges of the end walls 6.

The rear edge of the top wall 9 is bent downwardly to form a flange 11 that serves to provide hooked engagement with the upper edge of the back wall. The sheet, at the extremities of the flange 11, is slit and curved backwardly to form stop shoulders 12 that serve as centering and aligning devices, since they abut against the endmost surfaces of the end walls 6.

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The front wall 10 at its lower edge has a lip-like portion 13 and smaller lips 14, the lips 14 extending beneath the lower edges of the end walls 6, and have snap-like engagement with the end walls because of the flexibility of the sheet 910.

To either side of each lip 14, the metal of the front wall 10 is slit and curled backwardly to form ears 15 and 16. These ears serve as stop members to prevent endwise displacement of the end walls 6, the foremost edges of these end walls extending into the space between the ears 15-16 for resting upon the lips 14. Since a close fit is not required, the ears 15 and 16 are spaced apart distances considerably greater than the thickness of the end wall 6, to facilitate assembly of the parts.

It will be seen that access can be had to the box simply by grasping the back-turned edge 13 of the front wall 10 and pulling it outwardly and upwardly, the lid 9 being lifted from the back wall 5 at the same time, if complete removal of the cover is required.

In case it is desired to lock the hood against opening by unauthorized persons, holes 17 and 18 will be provided in the end walls 6 and the front wall 10 adjacent to the corners of the hoods, to receive a padlock or a padlock chain.

When the two parts of the structure are disassembled, the covers with their front walls, can readily be nested into one another and likewise with respect to the back wall and the end walls 6, particularly since the end walls are flexible to thus permit of some telescopic interfitting of these members.

' In Figs. 6, I have shown a structure wherein a metal sheet is bent to form a back wall 20 and end walls 21 that correspond to the elements 5 and 6 of Figs. 1 and 5, except that the upper edges of the end walls 21 are curved and the cover 22 is correspondingly curved. The cover 22 can simply be flanged at 23 and 24 for hooked engagement with the back wall and end walls, or it can have tongues bent therefrom as at 12 and 15 in Figs. 1 and 3.

I claim as my invention:

A two-piece hood of sheet metal, comprising a sheet bent on vertical lines to form a back wall and end walls, a second sheet bent on a horizontal line at the forward edges of the end Walls, to form front and top walls, the top wall of the second sheet overlying the upper edges of the end walls and having its rear edge portion bent in a downwardly and forwardly sloping direction, in hooked engagement with the rearmost surface of the back wall, the front wall portion normally closing the space between the foremost edges of the end walls, and having a pair of lips extending backwardly beneath the lower edges of the end walls and also having ears at the ends of each lip, in position to engage the inner and outer vertical faces of the end walls and hold them against displacement in either direction, perpendicular to their planes, there being stop shoulders bent downwardly and forwardly at the ends of said rear edge portion, in abutting engagement with the outer vertical faces of the end walls.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,696,483 Hiering Dec. 25, 1928 1,770,327 Thayer July 8, 1930 2,090,297 Knoche Aug. 17, 1937 2,497,561 Rose Feb. 15, 1950 2,608,294 Ward Aug. 26, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 415,560 Great Britain Aug. 30, 1934 

